RaidhoD3 version 2Mint with the newer black trim. Price reduction from $23995 to $19995I am pricing it aggressively to finance other interest.Review:Well, it has been almost 72 hours since I first started listening ...19995.00

Raidho D3 version 2 [Expired]

Well, it has been almost 72 hours since I first started listening to my
D3's. They have been playing non-stop ever since. I haven't had as
much time to play with them as I would like, but I have learned some
valuable information.

If you are planning on purchasing a pair of Raidho speakers, you need to
literally forget traditional audio thinking - isolation, room
treatments, expensive stands, stillpoints and even specific cable
risers. After multiple discussions with Lars and Michael from Raidho, I
am on a steep learning curve and realized that I have to literally
forget traditional audio thinking. Raidho speakers are built around
certain principals, those being:

* Mechanical Grounding
* Electrical Grounding
* Energy
* They can be placed in any "normal" living room or family room and
sound great. A dedicated room is not needed and expensive treatments
will only produce a negative result.

So what does this mean? First, spending thousands of dollars on room
treatments will bring negative results. Raidho speakers are designed
around the energy the room can produce. Dampening is bad. Absorption
is bad. Reflection is bad. However, simple (and inexpensive) diffusion
is good. Michael explained that silk plants at the first and second
reflection points is all that is needed. They work as wonderful
diffusors that are not only inexpensive, but look good! Second, two
large vases with bamboo sticks spread out at the front of the wall,
directly in line behind the speakers works wonderful as diffusors (and
looks good too!). In the Raidho testing room, that's all they have.

I was all set to hire an acoustic engineer to measure my room and
provide very detailed (CAD drawings) of the appropriate treatments
needed. This may have been the right approach for most speakers, but
certainly not the Raidho's. I learned this lesson first hand when I
removed all my bass traps and acoustic treatments. The room became more
focused, more tighter, but quite simply, just more alive (in a really
good way).

** SETUP ** - In terms of positioning, this is one of the most important
factors I have learned. I have completely ELIMINATED any "boominess" I
originally heard by adhering to proper placement of my Raidho D3's.
Raidho's like to be close to side walls (if possible) - mine are
approximately 1 foot measured from the side of the speaker closest to
the wall to the actual wall. MOST IMPORTANTLY - Raidho's like to be
close to the back wall. I found the best spot to be 3 feet (exactly)
measured from the back of the speaker to the back wall. When I moved
them to 4 feet, I sensed a titch of boominess coming back. More exact
experimentation is needed, but this has been my findings. The
difference between 5-8 feet out in the room to exactly 3 feet is night
and day. Night and day. Obviously, if you have other things behind
the speakers (big wall unit, rack, etc.) - you can safely, I believe,
measure from the back of the speaker to the front of that rack/wall
unit/etc.

Electronic devices (and even cables) produce energy, and stands which
are designed to keep that energy in the device have negative results
because the energy from the device cannot escape. The folks at Raidho
believes that racks and other devices which keep the energy in the
device or the wires produce negative results. The energy needs to
escape. Keeping the energy in the device can have negative audible
results.

How are they sounding? Sublime. Top to bottom they are coherent,
balanced and very musical. You can listen for hours. The Raidho
tweeter ensures that! If you haven't seen the specs on the tweeter,
it's interesting to see how quickly it dissipates energy. Tweeters
which hang on to energy or store energy can often be fatiguing. See: http://www.raidho.dk/uploads/Raidho-...eter-FTT75.pdf
(Page 4, LspLAB VOLT test). I will have more to say on their sound
as I continue to cycle through my music, but I will echo what Jonathan
Valin has to say in next months TAS: although no speaker can reproduce
the sonic quality of being at a live symphony, the Raidho comes as close
of any speaker I have heard. The first time I listened to Beethoven's
Symphony No. 5 - my jaw dropped. The Raidho's however, play all genres
of music well and even raise the level of performance of bad
recordings.